Asian Pangolins Being Consumed to Extinction

Rising demand for pangolins, mostly from mainland China, compounded by lax laws is wiping out the unique toothless anteaters from their native habitats in Southeast Asia, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said today. Undercover photo courtesy TRAFFIC “Illegal trade in Asian pangolin meat and scales has caused the scaly anteaters to disappear from large...

July 13, 2009

Rising demand for pangolins, mostly from mainland China, compounded by lax laws is wiping out the unique toothless anteaters from their native habitats in Southeast Asia, TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, said today.

Undercover photo courtesy TRAFFIC

“Illegal trade in Asian pangolin meat and scales has caused the scaly anteaters to disappear from large swathes of Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR,” TRAFFIC said a panel of experts had concluded.

“China has a long history of consuming pangolin as meat and in traditional medicine,” a TRAFFIC report on the investigation states. “Due to continual demand and the decreasing Chinese wild population, in the past few years pangolin smuggling from Southeast Asia has resulted in great declines in these producing countries’ wild populations, as well.”

Watch this National Geographic video “What in the World is a Pangolin?”

Pangolins are the most frequently encountered mammals seized from illegal traders in Asia, and are highly unusual in not possessing teeth, TRAFFIC said.

“Pangolins, like the laws designed to protect them, lack bite,” said Chris Shepherd, acting director for TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

“Pangolin populations clearly cannot stand the incessant poaching pressure, which can only be stopped by decisive government-backed enforcement action in the region,” Shepherd added.

Undercover picture of pangolins courtesy TRAFFIC

According to pangolin hunters and traders, there are so few pangolins left in forests throughout Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR, they are now sourcing animals from their last remaining strongholds in Southeast Asia and beyond, TRAFFIC said.

“Recent large seizures back up these reports. They include 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, seized in Vietnam this March and 14 tonnes of frozen animals seized in Sumatra this April. There have also been recent instances of African pangolins seized in Asia.”

“Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction … we cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as natural controllers of termites and ants.”

“Pangolins save us millions of dollars a year in pest destruction,” says Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission. “These shy creatures provide a vital service and we cannot afford to overlook their ecological role as natural controllers of termites and ants.”

Pangolin photo by Bjorn Olesen/TRAFFIC

The key to tackling the pangolin crisis is better enforcement of existing national and international laws designed to protect pangolins, better monitoring of the illegal trade, and basic research to find where viable pangolin populations still exist and whether ravaged populations can recover given adequate protection, according to TRAFFIC

The experts on pangolins consulted in the investigation included scientific researchers, government law enforcement officers from most Asian pangolin range States, CITES management and scientific authorities and animal rescue centres, who convened at a workshop hosted by Wildlife Reserves Singapore at the Singapore Zoo.

All pangolins in illegal trade are wild-sourced as they cannot be captive bred on a commercial scale.

Photo of pangolin courtesy TRAFFIC

In the wild, pangolins breed slowly, producing just one young at a time, making populations particularly vulnerable to over-exploitation.

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a joint programme of IUCN and WWF.

Undercover photo of pangolins courtesy TRAFFIC

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